


Arcus Coelestis

by kangaroar



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Colors, Crushes, Cute, Denial, Falling In Love, Fluff, High School, KageHina - Freeform, M/M, Prompt Fic, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-04-09 15:05:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4353635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangaroar/pseuds/kangaroar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kageyama sees, for the first time, the color of Hinata's hair. In a world where each person is colorblind until they meet their soulmate, you can probably understand why Kageyama was more than just a little bit horrified.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Monochromatic

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: AU where the world is black and white until you meet your soulmate.

_Fuck._

That was the first thought that crossed Kageyama's mind as he stared at the teenager in front of him. Hinata stared back, unsure of how to react to Kageyama's intense, slightly glazed look.

_Shit. This shouldn't be happening. I've known him for three fucking months._

Three months since his acceptance as a freshman in Karasuno High School- three months since his reunion with Hinata, who he'd never forgotten from the match they'd played in middle school. Who he couldn't forget.

_Oh my God. Fuck. My. Life._

He knew he'd been staring for way too long, and he couldn't even imagine the look on his face. But inside, he was a mess of swirling emotions, a black conglomeration of shock, horror, denial, and fear running through his veins and poisoning his thoughts, all because he could see exactly what color Hinata's hair was for the first time.

_His hair is orange. His hair is fucking orange._

That wasn't the problem, though. He'd learned two weeks in that Hinata, of course, sported wild, messy, orange locks that fit his personality exactly. The problem was that Kageyama was colorblind. Everyone was colorblind. The world was black and white for everyone.

At least, until they met their soulmate.

 _This can't be happening._ Kageyama wanted to cry. _There's no way that this fucking idiot loser is my soulmate. There's no fucking way._

"Are you okay, Kageyama?" Hinata asked, looking up at him worriedly. "Is there something wrong with my face or something?"

 _Yes, there is. Your hair is fucking orange. I didn't even know what orange looked like before this._ This couldn't be right. After all, rest of the world was still in innumerous shades of gray. It was only Hinata's hair that had been suddenly painted in with a bright splash of color.  Speaking of which, if Hinata wasn't affected by this sudden twist of fate, then would he really be Kageyama's soulmate?

"Kageyama? Hello?"

Kageyama looked at him, his mind buzzing. He grabbed the front of Hinata's shirt and pulled him close, looming over the shorter one and casting a shadow over his face. His heart was pounding so hard that he could feel each beat in each finger.

"What color are my eyes?"  he asked. Hinata couldn't possibly know the answer to that. He'd never told anyone on the volleyball team or in their classes the color of his eyes.

"Uh, dude?" Hinata leaned back as far as possible, but Kageyama kept a firm grip on his shirt. "I don't know, they're just gray to me!"

Kageyama's heart settled a bit from its nervous thumping. "Okay." He let Hinata go, adjusted his backpack strap, and began walking away, leaving Hinata behind.

"Um, your house is the other way. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

Kageyama whirled around. Sure enough, he had been going the wrong way. "Nothing's wrong. Everything's fine," he answered tersely, his eyes as blank as possible and his mouth set in a thin line so his emotions would be unreadable.

Hinata looked at him as if he'd just sprouted tentacles. "Alright, then. See you tomorrow, I guess?"

"See you."

Kageyama was fine. He still had time to fix this. If he could just convince himself that Hinata wasn't his soulmate, then his world would revert back to its comfortable, cool-toned shades of gray, black, and white. He inhaled deeply, trying to calm his tingling nerves. Fate must have been confused, especially since, obviously, it hadn't affected Hinata at all. He'd fix the situation and then it would all be over.

* * *

The next morning, contrary to Kageyama's hopes, only got worse. Kageyama could still only see orange, but it had spread to other parts of his world as well. The sun, instead of being blindingly white, now had a bright orange seeping into its outline, blending together with the white that was still blinding but now more three dimensional. He passed by a traffic cone while walking to school, noting that it was a darker and more muted shade of orange. Really, he was already tired of the loud color. He wished with all his heart that it would just return to normal. In all honesty, he pondered as he entered the school campus, gray must be the most attractive of all colors. He'd read descriptions of the color spectrum before as a child, and none of it struck him as being particularly beautiful. Gray was neutral and balanced. Not too dark, and not too light. If gray was a gentle whisper, then orange was a foghorn next to his ear.

Kageyama scanned the groups of students heading into the school, looking for the splash of orange that would allow him to identify Hinata. After a few minutes of searching, he finally found Hinata standing in the middle of the courtyard, his fists clenched and his body stiff as a board.

"Hinata!" Kageyama called, trying to get his attention. He nearly jolted when Hinata looked at him with a gaze that looked both dead and bone-chillingly fervent.

"Blue." That was the only thing that Hinata said in reply.

"Huh?" Kageyama could feel a vague, impending sensation of doom, but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

"Daichi put our team picture on the class website last night."

"Yeah? What of it?" Kageyama tapped his foot, becoming impatient. Their first class would start in less than five minutes, and they were cutting it pretty close.

"Yesterday."

Kageyama sighed in frustration, still not understanding. "Can't you speak in complete sentences, dumbass? I don't know what you're talking about."

Hinata's eyes turned glazed, and for that reason, Kageyama suddenly knew why he was feeling so anxious. Because yesterday after school, he'd looked at Hinata the exact same way Hinata was looking at him now.

"Your eyes are blue."

Kageyama's heart stopped momentarily, and then the sound of his pulse and roaring blood filled his ears, drowning everything else out. "You're kidding, right?" He felt faint. Sick. "You don't even know what blue looks like. That was just a lucky guess, right?" _Please tell me he's joking._

"I matched the color in the photo to Natsu's crayons. Your eyes are blue. Everything else is still black and white. You can see color on me too, right?"

Kageyama choked up, his mind going blank. This was a nightmare, and he couldn't wake up from it.

"Why else would you act so weird around me yesterday? What color can you see?"

"O-orange."

"So does this mean..."

They both looked up, meeting each others' eyes, and their horror was immediately replaced by the complete and utter refusal to believe that they were-

"Oh, _fuck,_ no!"


	2. Analogous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to the positive response I received (thank you so much to those who reviewed) I've decided that I'll make this into a multi-chap, though it's going to be kind of short and very laidback. I wrote this chapter to, in a way, ease myself in, so nothing super big happens in this one. The next chapter will be up soon!

The next few days were hell for both Kageyama and Hinata. Everywhere they went, they tried their best to avoid each other, and when they eventually bumped into each other, they refused to meet each others' eyes and, at best, would exchange a quiet, sullen, "hello."

It was even worse at practice. Their freak quick was suddenly impossible to pull off, since Kageyama's eyes were automatically attracted to the bright, contrasting color of Hinata's hair in comparison to everything else around him. After his tosses smacked into Hinata's head for the fifth time in a row, Hinata finally snapped.

"Can you fucking concentrate, Kageyama?" Hinata shouted, almost comically outraged. "Your tosses are shit!"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Kageyama growled. "Just give me some time to adjust."

"Adjust to what?" Tanaka asked, looking both curious and annoyed at Kageyama's mistakes.

"Nothing!" Hinata and Kageyama exclaimed at the same time, not wanting at all for anyone to catch on to the fact that they were losing their blindness to color.

Tanaka looked taken aback at the outburst. "Uh, okay, just wondering, if you want to keep it a secret then that's fine."

"You guys are acting weird." Daichi interrupted, looking irritated. "I don't know what's going on between you two, but either you get your heads in the game or you'll be sitting out for the rest of practice."

"We'll do better," the pair promised. But in the end, Kageyama couldn't correct his tosses, and Hinata exploded at him again, so they ended up sitting out for the remainder of the hour.

* * *

Kageyama confronted Hinata reluctantly and grumpily during their lunch break after thinking for some time about their current position, still wondering why the hell fate had destined such a loser to be his soulmate.

"Hinata, this isn't going to work."

"What do you mean?" Hinata leaned back in his chair, sipping on a carton of orange juice. "We're doing fine. Your tosses have been improving. Other than our rapidly increasing ability to see color, we are just splendid."

"Not so loud, dumbass!" Kageyama hissed, worried that the people around them had overheard anything that Hinata had just said. "I mean, this whole avoiding each other thing isn't going to work. People are going to notice eventually, and Daichi will get mad if he sees that this situation is affecting our performance in games."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Hinata looked at his knees, a faint hint of pink settling on his cheeks. "Obviously, after all that's happened, there's no way we can ever...be the same around each other."

"Oh, shut up."

"I'm just being honest."

Kageyama sighed. "Even if we'll never really be able to mimic what we had before, we have to at least make it look like nothing ever changed. I guess the best we can do right now is just, as they say, fake it until we make it."

"But what if we never make it?" Hinata countered.

"Then we adjust accordingly. Just like how we're adjusting to seeing all this color around us."

"Hmm." Hinata rocked his chair back and forth, making Kageyama yell at him that he was going to fall. "That seems doable. Besides, it's not that hard to be annoyed at you like I usually am."

"What the fuck?!"

"But anyway, how is your...situation now?"

"You mean my sight?"

"Yeah." Hinata slurped up the last of his drink noisily, throwing it into a nearby trash can. "Anything different?"

"Nope. Still just orange." Kageyama lowered his voice. "But now I can see a lot of different variations of orange. I used to only be able to see one shade. How about you?" Kageyama sat down on Hinata's desk, propping his feet on the edge of Hinata's chair.

"Well, at first, I could only see the blue of your eyes. Now the range is broadening, I guess. I can see purple, too. And the sky. The sky's a really nice shade of blue," Hinata said. "This whole thing is really nice, to be completely honest, minus the soulmate thing. Gray is such a boring color."

"Mm." Kageyama pushed Hinata's chair dangerously far back on its two back legs with his heels, making Hinata yelp. "What's wrong with gray?"

"Don't do that, asshole!" Hinata shoved Kageyama's legs away from the chair. "It's not special, that's what's wrong with it."

"What's wrong with not being special?"

Hinata shrugged and finished up the last of his lunch. "Everything's more beautiful when you don't see it as much. All my life, I've only known gray. It's a nice change of pace, that's all."

Kageyama thought about Hinata's words. He supposed it was true. "Do you think, once you've gotten used to being able to see color for a while, you'll eventually want to revert back to black and white?"

Hinata looked thoughtful for a moment. "It would make sense to want that, but I don't think so. The world is so much more beautiful this way. As nice as gray might be, it just doesn't compare at all to a world full of color."

Kageyama stared out the window, eyes focusing on everything he could see that was orange. Hinata might actually be right, for once. As much as orange was too bold and too garish for him, it certainly made things a bit more interesting to look at.

"Hey, Kageyama?"

"Yeah?"

"What color is the sun?"

Kageyama rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I would know, since staring directly into the sun is such a good idea."

"Oh, come on."

He closed his eyes and sighed. "As far as I can tell, it's a little bit orange and mostly white. I can't see that much right now." He paused. "What color is the sky, then?"

"It's light blue." Hinata stretched, yawning. "Blue looks kind of like gray, in a way. It just has more...variation."

"Then what kind of blue are my eyes?" Kageyama asked inquisitively.

Hinata paused his ceaseless rocking, becoming quiet with contemplation. "They're dark blue. So dark they almost look black."

Kageyama cocked his head. "So how do you know they're not black, then?"

"Well," Hinata scratched the back of his head thoughtfully. "I just do. Because blue is so much prettier than black."

He knew that Hinata's intention wasn't to compliment him. But even though he knew, Kageyama couldn't help the flush that rose to his cheeks.

* * *

After they'd said goodbye to each other, going their separate ways, Kageyama began walking home alone. As he reached the top of a particularly steep hill, he stopped in his tracks, standing stock still, and felt his heart flutter in a foreign manner in his chest as he drank in the sight of the sun setting over the tops of trees in the distance. Now, the sun was a light orange color, rather than being almost pure white. The sky around it had become a burnt orange color too, and the clouds that hung in front of the sun reflected with a myriad of orange hues. Everything around him, even the trees, was tinged with orange due to the dying light as the sun sank lower and lower behind the horizon.

As the wind whipped through his hair, as he stood gazing in rapture at the sunset, which was miles more beautiful than he'd ever thought it could possibly be, Kageyama began to understand more clearly what Hinata had meant.

 Somehow, in that moment, his conventional gray looked so much less attractive than the many shades of orange that had been painted across the sky.

Perhaps it was that particular and sudden realization that made it so that, when Kageyama woke up the next morning, he found that he could see red, too.


	3. Hue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got stuck in the middle of this chapter, so this might still be a little rough around the edges. (You would not believe how much romantic, ambient music I had to listen to to get this out.) Also I'm not really sure why the preview note is still showing up, oh well.

"It got so much worse so fast," Kageyama groaned, tipping his head back and resting it against the gym wall that he and Hinata were sitting against.

"You're telling me," Hinata mumbled, his face in his hands. "At least you can only see two colors."

Kageyama started, looking at Hinata curiously. "You can see more?"

Hinata made a low noise in the back of his throat. "I can see three. That means there's only four more colors to go. Four more colors until it means that you're definitely, one hundred percent my soulmate." Hinata shivered, presumably with disgust.  "This is so dumb. And I can't believe Daichi kicked us out of practice _again,_ " Hinata complained, fuming. "We didn't even argue that much today."

Kageyama raised lifted his head and let it fall back again, as if the slight pain of the resulting thump would somehow erase the color from his vision. "All these stupid colors are fucking up my depth perception."

Hinata was silent for a moment, staring at the floor between his spread legs. "Hey, Kageyama, do you really hate being able to see color that much?"

"You mean, do I hate seeing color, or do I hate the reason why I can see it?"

"Both."

Kageyama considered the questions. "I don't like color in that it makes it harder to toss to you. But eventually, I'll just get used to it, so in the long run, I don't mind it. As far as the rest..." He hesitated. "I don't know. Mixed feelings, I guess. How about you?"

"Honestly, I think being able to see like this is worth the odds. Who knows, maybe soulmates can be best friends. After all, we're friends, aren't we?" Hinata replied.

Kageyama stared at him blankly. "We are?"

"What the fuck have we been doing these past three months?!" Hinata barked, outraged. "Have you ever even had a friend, Kageyama?"

"Of course I have."

Hinata sighed in defeat. "We do everything together, we promised each other we'd be the best in Japan together, we eat lunch together, and we spend all of our time together. What more do you want?"

"I guess that _would_ make us friends..." Kageyama trailed off. He'd never hated Hinata, after all, and when he got angry or grabbed Hinata's hair, he was never really that annoyed. So if they weren't enemies, and they were closer than acquaintances, Kageyama supposed that they'd have to be friends.

"Oh my god, you're so fucking socially inept." Hinata hugged his legs to his chest and rested his forehead on his knees. "I can't believe I'm friends with a loser like you."

"I can't believe I'm friends with a dumbass like you, either," Kageyama grumbled.

"Who's the dumbass here again? You don't even know what friends are!"

Kageyama said nothing, his eyes fixed on Hinata's hair. Now that he could see red, Hinata's hair looked even brighter in color than it already did. When the sun shone on it in all the right places, Kageyama swore that his hair matched the sunset in both variety and intensity of color. It was transfixing.

Hinata raised his head slightly, as if sensing his stare, looking at him questioningly from the corner of one eye. "...What are you doing?"

Kageyama froze. He hadn't realized that he was reaching a careful hand toward Hinata's messy locks, barely an inch away from carding through it with his fingers to see what other shades of color he could uncover within the strands. He flushed and lowered his hand. "Sorry."

"You're so weird." Hinata let his head fall back onto his knees.

Kageyama sat quietly next to him for a few minutes. Then, words started falling unbidden from his lips as he started letting out frustrations he didn't even know he'd been holding in.

"Hinata, I'm tired of this. I'm tired of trying to run away."

Hinata straightened, looking at him in surprise. "You mean, you want to accept that we're soulmates?"

"No, I want to forget about it. If we're going to get through this, then I don't want to end up resenting you for something that's out of our control."

Hinata narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that I want to get to know you better."

"What?!" Hinata exclaimed. "Dude-I can't comprehend all of this, the most antisocial person I know is trying to tell me he wants to be best friends, what the hell going on?" he asked, looking more like he was talking to himself than to Kageyama.

"I want to think of you as a friend before I think of you as a soulmate. What we have isn't good enough. All we do is disagree and tease each other. I want something more than that. I want trust from you, and not just blind trust like in volleyball. If you think about it, we barely know each other off the court. And that's pathetic. I want to _actually_ be your friend."

Hinata stared at him a while longer, as if he'd sprouted a third eyeball, but then sighed in resignation. "I guess I can see where you're coming from."

"From now on, just ignore all the colors you see. Even if you can see all seven colors of the rainbow, just don't think about being soulmates. Maybe if we can get along, this'll work itself out."

"Kageyama, this has already 'worked itself out.' It has since you first saw the color of my hair. A soulmate isn't the person you could live with for the rest of your life, it's the one person you can't live without. A soulmate is someone who you love. Who you'll always love. Whether you're friends or lovers." Hinata ran a hand through his hair, embarrassed. "For some people, they never find that person. For others, it's love at first sight. The moment they see each other, their world is colored all at once. For people like us, it's a matter of time. Colors flow in gradually. The more colors you see, the closer you are to eventually being in love. The minute we see all colors, then it's game over. It's decided. We're soulmates."

"Even so. If we end up soulmates, I want to know you like one. I don't want to be soulmates with a complete stranger."

Hinata looked at him as if he were pleading Kageyama to change his mind, but he eventually hung his head in defeat. "Alright, Kageyama. If you say so." Hinata exhaled heavily. "If we're really going to do this, do you want to start by get dinner together tonight? As friends," he corrected quickly, "not...a date."

"Fine, as long as you pay."

"Like hell I'm paying for you!"

 Kageyama grinned as he caught the volleyball that was aimed at his face.

Sometimes, being friends with Hinata, even if he was a dumbass, really wasn't that bad at all.

* * *

By the time they finished cleaning up the gym with the rest of their teammates, it was already past eight at night. Not wanting to spend too long looking for somewhere to eat dinner, Hinata parked his bike outside a burger place of his choice, motioning for Kageyama to follow him inside.

"I'm a little surprised you didn't choose a place with pork buns," Kageyama remarked teasingly.

"I've been getting tired of them," Hinata replied dismissively.

"Yeah, running off to get three or four every day does that to you."

"I don't want to hear it from someone who needs to practice tossing the ball to himself on his bed every night before he can even get to sleep, Kageyama."

Kageyama snorted, following Hinata to an empty booth where they left their jackets before getting in line to order. Kageyama, not having much of an appetite, ordered nothing but a drink and a salad, while Hinata proceeded to order the largest burger the shop had to offer.

"It's not good to eat that much this late at night." Kageyama eyed the towering mass of bread, lettuce, and meat warily. Could someone as small as Hinata really stomach that much food?

"I'm starving, I didn't really have that much for lunch."

They sat down with their trays across from each other. Hinata immediately dug in, looking pleased with his choice, while Kageyama started off by sipping leisurely at his drink.

"So, this Saturday, there's a grand opening of a new aquarium downtown. You wanna go with me? I was going to go with Natsu if no one else would."

"Sure," Kageyama shrugged, unwrapping his fork and pouring dressing over his lettuce. "What kind of animals do they have?"

"I don't know, but I hear they've got a massive selection of all kinds of sharks. Also, there's an anemone petting zoo, isn't that cool?"

"You're such a kid."

"Um, who _doesn't_ get excited at anemone petting zoos?" Hinata scrunched his face at Kageyama. "Did you even have a childhood, Kageyama?"

"Of course I did. My childhood was just all volleyball."

"So, basically, you didn't have a childhood." Hinata sighed. "Whatever. Once we're there, you'll see the magic in touching slimy bottom-dwelling sea creatures that try to kill and digest your fingers upon contact."

"I prefer dolphins, thanks."

"How come? I would've thought you to be a shark person, for sure."

"Dolphins are intelligent. Intelligent enough to brutalize sharks."

"I guess so. They make funny noises." Hinata proceeded to do a rather impressive and accurate imitation of a dolphin's whistle. It was so unexpected that Kageyama couldn't help but laugh.

"Holy shit! I didn't know you could laugh!"

"Shut up," Kageyama muttered, still trying to suppress his residual chuckles. He reached across the table and stole some of Hinata's fries, popping them into his mouth. "Hey, have you ever seen the colors of your own hair?"

"Nope. I can only see blue, purple, and pink. What does my hair look like?"

Kageyama didn't stop to consider the meaning behind his words. "Looks like the sunset."

Hinata just stared at him, looking a bit flustered. "You told me the sunset was the most beautiful thing you'd ever seen, besides a volleyball woven of gold thread."

"Ah, my bad," Kageyama caught himself smoothly. "Your hair looks like the sunset without all of its beauty."

"Ha, ha, asshole." Hinata fell silent, looking almost dejected, and Kageyama guessed that it was because he was thinking about the issue of being soulmates again.

"You know, Hinata," Kageyama sat back, sticking his hands in his pockets as he waited for Hinata to finish the last of his burger, "even if we do become best friends, or something of that sort, I don't really think we'd change that much. We'd still argue and insult each other, we'd just know more about each other. That's kind of how we'd be friends."

"What are you saying?"

Kageyama sighed out of his nose. "I'm saying that no matter how close we grow, it won't change how we act around each other. And that's why, if I'm a hundred percent honest, I don't really mind the fact that you're my soulmate."

Hinata looked speechless, but at the same time he was trying not to smile, and that made a small spark of warmth zip through Kageyama's chest.

"You're not such a heartless bastard, after all."


	4. Complementary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hit me up on my [tumblr](http://flexecutioner.tumblr.com/) for memes as i try really hard to conceal my inner weeaboo (you can also send me prompts for fics there AND view my terrible artwork) thumbs up for shameless self advertisement  
> On a more serious note, I've been quite busy, so this chapter comes off as a little bit rushed. I'll edit it in due time, but at this point, I'm more concerned with just finishing this dumb story. Thank you for understanding (:

Hinata huffed, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket as the duo wove and sidestepped their way through the hordes of people on the streets of downtown, talking so loudly to each other that they were almost screaming just so they could be heard over the roar of passing cars and trucks. Evidently, news of the new aquarium had spread.

"Do you think there's going to be a line to get tickets?" Kageyama groaned. It was too damn early in the morning to be queuing up for hours just to get in to look at a few fish.

"Oh, I preordered them online." Hinata produced the tickets from his back pocket. "We can just go straight in."

"That's the first good idea you've had in a while. What do you want to do for lunch?"

"There's a street full of cafes and restaurants a block away from the aquarium. We can go there, but it's pretty expensive."

"I have money," Kageyama replied. "I was expecting to have to buy tickets, so I brought a bit extra."

"Then it's settled." Hinata grinned. Kageyama fought the urge to smile back and looked away instead.

"Hey, how long do you think it'll-" Kageyama started, before Hinata interrupted him with a loud outburst.

"Kageyama, look!" Hinata exclaimed loudly, grabbing the other's arm and pointing enthusiastically at the building that towered around two blocks away, just outside of the busiest section of streets. "That's the aquarium! Ugh, it's going to be so crowded, look at that huge line!"

Kageyama stared at the building and the large blue logo that embellished the front. It looked like it was made entirely of black-tinted windows, and it was almost as tall as the skyscrapers that towered next to it.

"It's...bigger than I thought it would be."

"Well, duh. They made it big enough to be able to hold things like whale sharks and dolphins." Hinata started practically vibrating with enthusiasm. Kageyama rolled his eyes, but he had to admit, Hinata's eagerness was actually kind of contagious.

Once they'd pushed through the mass of people blocking the entrance and entered the actual exhibit, it was even bigger than it had looked from the outside. The ceiling was high and the lighting was dim, the primary source of light coming from the huge tanks of water. Hinata dragged him to the whale habitats first, staring in awe at the monstrously huge animals as they drifted languorously by.

"Kageyama, the water's so blue! I never knew water was that blue!"

"Well, I still can't see it, so it all just looks gray to me."

"You're missing out!" Hinata gaped as a school of fish swam by, looking like a little kid at his first birthday party. "There are even dolphins in there!" Hinata gasped, pushing his conveniently small body into a gap between the other viewers and pressing his nose to the glass, marveling when the dolphin turned and chittered at the onlookers. Kageyama was forced to keep close to Hinata so he wouldn't lose sight of him, but the crowd surged so that he was pressed right up against Hinata's back. Kageyama immediately panicked, trying his best to discreetly regain a comfortable distance between Hinata. Thankfully, Hinata was too preoccupied with waving at a group of stingrays to notice.

After they'd passed through the rest of the large exhibits (Hinata took his sweet time at the shark tank), they moved on to smaller tanks that were full of colorful fish with rippling, fluid-like fins and enrapturing patterns scattered across their scales. Kageyama was pleased to notice that the fish were primarily in bright reds and oranges that were almost borderline yellow. Hinata was significantly less pleased, pouting as he could only observe the creatures in black and white.

"Kageyama," Hinata whined, drawling out the vowels in his name. "What do they look like?"

"They look like little candle flames," Kageyama replied, leading Hinata through the rest of the gallery and feeling a little bit like he was playing the part of Hinata's parent.

"What does fire look like?"

"Every shade of yellow, orange, and red you could ever imagine, all flickering and melting into each other."

"Ooh, so you can see yellow now?"

"Yeah."

Hinata didn't reply, and when Kageyama glanced at him from the corner of his eye, Hinata looked torn between keeping his expression neutral and trying not to let his worry show on his face. Kageyama tsked and cuffed Hinata on the side of the head. "Don't think about it too much, dumbass."

"I'm not, I'm not," Hinata laughed nervously, but it looked so different and empty from his usual one that Kageyama knew it had to be fake.

He hated it. If there was one thing about Hinata that shouldn't ever be fake, it was his smile. So, when Hinata continued to look gloomy, Kageyama tried his best to distract him.

"So how's Natsu?" he asked, for lack of a better conversation starter.

"She's good. I think. She always has a bunch of her friends over, so I always have to babysit them. It's fun, but they're kind of too much for me to handle."

"They must be a real handful if they're too much for even _you_ to deal with. You're like, energy personified."

"You're so mean." Hinata pretended to pout, but the light was back in his lively eyes and he was clearly trying not to smile.

Eventually, they made their way in a full circle back to the whale habitats. It was apparently feeding time for the whales, and even more people were pressing up to the glass to watch a diver feed the animals. Hinata complained about not being able to see, so Kageyama joked about picking him up and carrying him on his shoulders. Hinata accepted.

Naturally, though, there was no way Kageyama would be seen with Hinata in such an embarrassing light, so he gave Hinata another gentle cuff and told him there'd be no way. The more he thought about it as they left the aquarium, though, the more he was certain that he really wouldn't mind having to carry Hinata.

* * *

This time, Hinata let Kageyama pick the restaurant they ate at. Kageyama picked a place that he knew Hinata would like, and of course, the place specialized in making pork buns. Hinata ordered seventeen, expecting Kageyama to help him finish the massive serving. They'd gotten about nine buns in before giving up.

"What the hell made you think we could finish all those?" Kageyama spat, clutching at his overly full stomach.

"I didn't know they'd be that big, and I thought I was hungrier than I actually was," Hinata moaned, nearly in tears. Of the nine buns they'd had, Hinata had eaten six.

Kageyama sighed. "There's no way we're walking all the way back to the bus stop at this rate, we'll die. We might as well just hang out here for a while. It's still only a little past noon."

"Yes please," Hinata groaned, resting his cheek against the wooden surface of the table they were seated at.

"I still can't believe you ate six of those things."

"They were good, okay?"

"You monstrosity."

"I've seen how fast you happen to shove pork curry down your throat," Hinata snapped. "You're just as bad as I am."

Kageyama let slip a faint chuckle, leaning back in his seat. "We really don't get along anywhere but the court."

Hinata lifted his cheek off the table, a small circle of redness lingering on the skin where he was pressing it to the table. "Yeah, but it's like you said. It's what makes us friends."

Kageyama gave him an impossibly small and fleeting smile, and then they settled into comfortable silence. Kageyama caught himself staring at the way the afternoon sun caught in Hinata's hair, making it give off an almost ethereal glow. He seemed to do that a lot nowadays. Thankfully, Hinata, who was busy trying to fold his napkin into a paper crane, didn't notice.

"Hey," Kageyama began, "have you ever thought about how the worlds we see are the complete opposite from each other?"

"Hm?" Hinata hummed, looking up from his comically floppy crane.

"You know, the colors we see. They're on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Blue and purple, orange and red. The first colors we ever saw were blue and orange. That makes them complementary."

"What exactly does complementary mean, again?" Hinata put his elbow on the table, resting the side of his jaw on his fist as he stared out the window behind Kageyama.

"Well, when you paint a picture with them, blue and orange make each other look the brightest they can be. Brighter than any other combination of colors can. They complement each other. And when you mix them together, they cancel each other out, so they either turn dark brown or black."

Hinata frowned thoughtfully. "Huh, that's really weird. Do you think it's significant in any way? Or do you think it's a coincidence?"

Kageyama sighed. "Honestly, after finding out the bit about how _you're_ my soulmate, I don't think anything can really surprise me anymore."

"Should I be offended?"

"Probably."

Hinata laughed. Kageyama smiled, too. Hinata's laugh did that to him.

"By the way, my stomach's better now." Hinata jumped up, stretching luxuriously. "You wanna get out of here and catch the next bus back home?"

"Sure." Kageyama stood as well, reaching for the money in his pocket at the same time Hinata reached for his wallet. They met each others' eyes, sparking their usual rivalry.

"I'll pay," Hinata told Kageyama resolutely. "I invited you out, so it's my responsibility to treat you."

"Dumbass, I'm paying _because_ you invited me out."

They looked at each other for a moment, and then the same thought seemed to cross their minds and they both looked away, mortified.

_We're arguing like a couple out on a date,_ Kageyama thought to himself, covering his wildly blushing face with his hand.

"Split the check," they concluded at the same time. They slammed the money down and asked the waiter for a to-go bag for the rest of their meat buns, with a bonus side dish of complete mortification.

* * *

They realized too late that their designated bus wouldn't come until an hour and a half later, so they perched on top of a stone wall on the perimeter of a city park to wait. Hinata took it upon himself to tell Kageyama the story of how he almost drowned, and then the story of why he was terrified of penguins and moths, before going into graphic detail of the first time he saw a raccoon that happened to be roadkill.

Kageyama couldn't get a word in edgewise, but he didn't mind. He watched expressions flit across Hinata's face as he told his stories to pass time, the faces he made coming as fast as they left, listening to the words tumbling out of the Hinata's mouth, but it was as if Hinata was speaking underwater. Kageyama tried to pay attention, but he was too preoccupied with other things. Like the way his brow scrunched whenever he laughed. Hinata could have sat there, just smiling, for an hour and Kageyama would be just as content as he was at that moment. Being together was enough.

Kageyama ruled the skip in his heartbeat as a sign that they were successfully becoming better friends.

The wind picked up speed at one point as they continued waiting, and a single leaf fell on Hinata's head, getting caught in the orange spikes. Kageyama squinted at it for a moment, not believing his eyes, carefully picking it out of Hinata's hair and inspecting  it, twirling it around between his thumb and forefinger.

Hinata paused his long-winded story, staring at the leaf Kageyama held and trying to decipher the reason why Kageyama was looking at it so hard.

"Something wrong, Kageyama?"

Kageyama held the leaf up, staring at Hinata, then the leaf, then back at Hinata.

"Is this your first time ever seeing a leaf?" Hinata snickered, amused.

"No, but it's my first time seeing the color green."

Hinata didn't react, save for plucking the leaf from Kageyama's fingers and looking at it closely. He blinked, shaking his head a few times, before screwing up his eyes and holding the leaf close, and then far away.

"Yeah," he said decidedly. "I can see it, too."


	5. Chromaticity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I rewrote this chapter 4 times and made 6 drafts so i really hope this was worth all of the work to you guys  
> Don't worry if things momentarily seem like they're going to an NSFW direction because this fic will most likely be SFW all the way through  
> I really hope this makes up for the long wait! Sorry!

"Kageyama, want to come over tomorrow?"

Kageyama caught the ball Hinata spiked at him, looking at him in surprise. "We just saw each other last week."

Hinata shrugged. "Yeah, but I need someone to play Mario Kart with."

Kageyama tossed the ball in the air again for Hinata to spike. "Can't you just play with Natsu?"

"Natsu doesn't like Mario Kart."

"Fine, whatever." Kageyama sighed. "What time should I come?"

"Just a bit after noon. Do you want a ride? We can come pick you up."

"I'll just take a bus or something."

"Alright," Hinata grinned. "I'm looking forward to it!"

The statement was so genuine and sincere that Kageyama's throat closed up before he could say, "I am too."

* * *

The next morning, Kageyama grabbed a bagel before rushing out the door to catch the bus, calling a quick goodbye to his parents. He was strangely restless and nervous during the entire bus ride, and he kept thinking about how it would be his first time in Hinata's house.

The thoughts were still heavy in his mind as he got off the bus, thanking the driver politely. It crossed his mind briefly of the possibility of him...liking Hinata. As more than just a friend.

_No way,_ Kageyama thought resolutely. _There's no way I'd ever fall for that idiot._

But for the first time, there was a small part of him that doubted the statement.

The bus stop was only a few blocks away from Hinata's house, and Kageyama was beginning to regret his choice to wear a hoodie in the middle of the July heat. As he turned into the street that Hinata lived on, he was struck by how neat it looked. The lawns were all clipped and perfectly green and the hedges were trimmed to perfection.

Kageyama didn't really know what he was expecting Hinata's house to look like, but it was almost unnaturally orderly and perfect. It was white on the outside with brick accents, and the driveway was free of any leaves or dirt. Hinata's house looked like the exact opposite of what Hinata was.

When he rang the doorbell, he immediately heard muffled scrambles and shouts. To his surprise, the one who opened the door wasn't Hinata, but his sister.

"Are you Tobio?" she asked excitedly, pointing at Kageyama's chest.

Kageyama blinked at her. "Tobio...?"

"Natsu, it's not polite to point." Hinata appeared in the doorway, picking Natsu up and putting her to the side. "Hey, Kageyama."

Kageyama poked his head into the doorway, staring at Natsu, who ran down the hall and turned into a room that Kageyama assumed was the kitchen. "How come she called me Tobio?"

"I dunno." Hinata stepped aside to let Kageyama in, waiting patiently as he took off his shoes. "I told her your first name was Tobio and she thought it was really cool, for some reason. So now everyone in my family just calls you Tobio."

Hinata grabbed Kageyama's arm as soon as his shoes were off, pulling him enthusiastically into his living room and ignoring his protests. "So, turns out that Natsu lent our Wii to one of her friends. Is it alright if we just watch a movie together?"

Kageyama flopped down onto the leather couch and took off his hoodie, enjoying the way that the cool material brushed against his heated arms. "Sure."

Hinata opened cabinet to the side of the large flatscreen TV. "What kind of movies are you into?"

"Thrillers, horror, stuff like that." Unable to stifle a yawn, Kageyama let his head fall back and spread his arms along the back of the couch.

"You _would_ like movies like that. We don't have very many that are scary, since Natsu hates them, but my parents have The Shining, The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity, and The Room."

"Watched them all. Pick something you like, I don't really mind what we watch."

"Hmm..." Hinata hummed as he rummaged through the DVDs. "How about Monsters Inc.?"

"I've never seen it." Kageyama couldn't see it, but he could hear Hinata gasp in an affronted manner.

"Then we have to watch it! This movie is a classic!"

"Whatever you say." Kageyama stretched luxuriously, straightening out his legs, before lifting his head up just in time to see Hinata feed the disc into the player and come towards him, sitting down next to him on the couch. Kageyama couldn't help but notice that Hinata sat within the reach of his arm, so that to an outsider, it could have passed that he was putting his arm around Hinata.

The thought  made him more uncomfortable than he should have been, so he receded his arm and put both of his hands in his lap. Hinata, of course, was oblivious, bouncing up and down excitedly as he waited for the opening credits to pass.

Even though the movie was good, Kageyama found himself paying more attention to Hinata than the movie around half an hour in. He liked the way Hinata's eyes sparkled excitedly as they flickered all across the screen, drinking everything in. He also liked how Hinata kept up a running commentary during the duration of the movie, something that usually would have have annoyed Kageyama but instead made the movie more interesting. He found the way Hinata liked hugging his legs and propping his chin on his knees adorable-but just a little bit. He didn't know how he was just noticing, but when Hinata would shift or lean back, he caught whiffs of a scent that smelled suspiciously like green apple flavored candy. He wondered if it was Hinata's shampoo or something.

At some point, Hinata paused the video to get them some drinks. While he was busy, Kageyama put his arm back around the couch. When Hinata sat back down after tossing a can of soda into his lap, sitting closer than he had before, Kageyama's heart began racing at how right it felt, to have his arm around Hinata and to be sitting so close that he could now constantly smell that green apple scent Hinata seemed to emanate.

When they finished the movie, Kageyama looked over and was surprised to see Hinata tearing up.

"Are you _actually_ crying?" he teased.

"Hey, it's a good movie, okay? Boo's so sweet," he sniffled, hugging his legs tighter.

Kageyama told him that he still had some more time to spare, so they ended up watching Monsters University together until Hinata's mom called them over for dinner. Kageyama sat next to Hinata, trying not to meet the intense stare Natsu was aiming at him.

Hinata's parents were friendly and very welcoming. They asked him about school, volleyball, his future, and volleyball in his future. They seemed to know a lot about him; Kageyama attributed it to Hinata talking about him when he wasn't there. It kind of flattered him to think about how Hinata seemed to talk about him to his family, to the point of his parents knowing all about his dreams and calling him by his first name.

Eventually, a point was brought up that made Kageyama's heart stutter.

"So, Kageyama, are you doing anything tomorrow?" Hinata's mother asked as spooned another serving of curry onto his plate.

"Not really. I finished all my schoolwork this morning, so I should be free the rest of today and tomorrow," Kageyama answered as politely as possible while trying to hide the fact that he wanted to shove all of the food in his mouth at once. Hinata's mom was an exceptional cook.

"In that case, would you like to stay the night? I'm sure Hinata would love that, he talks about you so much."

" _Mom!"_ Hinata shouted indignantly, while Kageyama started choking so hard on his food that Hinata had to pound him on the back as he struggled to drink the water that his dad handed him.

"U-uh, I'm free tonight, but is it really okay for me to stay?" Kageyama asked, tears streaming from his eyes. What the hell was he supposed to say in a situation like this?

"Of course!" His mom smiled warmly. "We'd love to have you!"

Kageyama looked at Hinata, panicked.

"You can stay if you want, Kageyama," Hinata said, looking otherwise unfazed. "Do you want to, though?"

Kageyama blanched. What was the right answer?

Hinata stared at him as Kageyama tried to reason with himself, struggling to pick an answer. "If it makes your incredibly difficult decision any easier, we have an extra futon, and I wouldn't mind it if you stayed over."

"I...sure. I'll text my parents after dinner."

They were both blushing by that point, and judging by Natsu's smirk, it wasn't very surreptitious.

"Thanks for having me."

* * *

"Hey, do you want to shower?" Hinata asked as he walked into his room, toweling off his dripping hair.

"Sure." Kageyama sat at the edge of Hinata's bed, absorbing the sight of Hinata's room. It was neater than Kageyama had expected, but there were still clothes dropped on the floor here and there. It had a comfortable sense of familiarity and home to it. He had dorky posters on the wall and a small collection of Nintendo figurines lined along his bookshelf, and his computer's screensaver flashed picture after picture of outer space. It was small, a lot smaller than Kageyama's room, but Kageyama liked it.

"You should go right now, before Natsu hogs all the hot water. I'll get your bed set up. There are towels and everything in the bathroom, but I don't think I can lend you any clothes. They'll probably be too small." It looked like it was an incredible struggle for Hinata to get the last sentence out.

"That's fine." Kageyama stood and walked into the bathroom, feeling weird that he was just walking around as if he lived in the unfamiliar house.

The bathroom was still hot and humid from Hinata's shower, and, like everything else in the house, it was immaculate. He closed the door behind him and stripped quickly, already sweating from the heat. Turning the nozzle until the water was a comfortable temperature, he stepped under the stream and breathed a sigh of relief as the warmth washed away all of the tension he'd been carrying for the past few days.

After standing still for a few more minutes, he ran his fingers through his hair to make sure it was completely soaked, and then reached for the shampoo. There were a few bottles on the shower rack, and Kageyama wondered which one Hinata used. Not believing that he was _actually_ doing it, he flipped open the caps on each one and smelled them. Hinata's shampoo was in a green bottle, and it supposedly was formulated to smell like rainkissed leaves. It still smelled like green apple candy as Kageyama lathered it into his hair, and the smell lingered in it as he rinsed the foam off and washed the rest of his body before getting out of the shower.

Outside, he could hear Natsu complaining about it getting late, so Kageyama dried himself off as quickly as he could and dressed himself briskly. It was a relief to get out of the steamy bathroom and into Hinata's considerably cooler room.

Hinata looked up from his book as Kageyama came in, sprawled on his bed with a thick novel in his hands. "Done? Brushed your teeth and everything?"

"I'll do it in the morning. Natsu's probably going to shower soon."

"Yeah, she'll probably be in there for a while. By the way, if you start hearing these weird moans and wails, that's just her singing." Hinata reached for the towel he'd discarded onto the ground, tossing it to Kageyama. "Dry your hair properly, asshole. I don't want my room to turn into a lake."

Kageyama rolled his eyes, rubbing the towel through his hair harshly. Hinata hopped off the bed and closed the door, shutting them both in. His heart accelerated from a steady walk to fleeing from a wild bear. It felt so...intimate. Too intimate. It felt like they were getting ready to do something else-

Okay, he was _not_ going to let his mind wander that far.

"You wanna go to sleep now?" Hinata asked, putting his book on his desk. "Or we could just talk, I guess. I have funny cat videos on my phone, but I don't think you're into that kind of stuff."

"Talking's fine," Kageyama responded.

"Make yourself comfortable, then." Hinata crossed the room once more to turn off the lights before climbing into his bed, stretching his body out on top of the covers.

Kageyama swallowed before lying down on the futon Hinata and his parents had been kind enough to lay down for him. It was just below Hinata's bed, so he could hear every single exhale and inhale of the other. He turned around to lay on his stomach and, upon realizing that the pillow smelled of Hinata as well, hugged it a little bit closer.

"So..." Hinata rolled to the side of the bed and let his arm drop down so his hand was dangling close to Kageyama's face. The gesture was oddly comforting, even though Hinata probably did it unintentionally and so he could hear Kageyama better. "Have you seen any new colors lately?"

"Nope. Still stuck at the same four. How about you?"

"Yesterday I walked into a mailbox and I thought I saw orange, but I guess not."

Kageyama smirked, letting out a breathy chuckle. "Dork."

"Yeah, I probably looked stupid as hell. I'd laugh at me if I were passing by."

"That's what you have me for. To laugh at you, I mean." Kageyama stared at Hinata's hand as the moonlight slipping in through a crack in the curtains illuminated it, carving out the gentle curves and contours in Hinata's hand. It was oddly beautiful. "Hey, Hinata, what does the sky look like at night?"

"Well, in the city, it's just dark blue. Kind of like your eyes, you know? But in the wilderness, it looks so different. I've only seen it through pictures, but there are so many stars in the sky, like fireflies. And sometimes you can see bits of purple and green and pink, and that's what our galaxy looks like."

"Is it like a rainbow, or...?"

"No, it looks more like multicolored smoke. It's really beautiful." Hinata sighed in contentment. "The night sky is just as pretty as your sunsets sound."

"Sounds like it." Kageyama was distracted. He wasn't really paying attention to Hinata's voice anymore. All he could think about was how his own hand was gradually edging closer to Hinata's, and how Hinata's fingers sometimes twitched, and how he wanted so badly to hold them, slide his fingers between Hinata's and see if they really did fit like two puzzle pieces. If they really fit like their personalities seemed to. It really didn't help that Hinata's scent was swirling in his nose and seeping into his brain, consuming everything else that he thought about until everything in his mind was replaced by Hinata and how he suddenly _really_ wanted green apples despite hating their tartness.

"Kageyama?" The fingers twitched, looking like they were about to be pulled away from Kageyama, and he instinctively grabbed Hinata's hand.

"I'm...falling asleep..." Hinata mumbled sleepily, not seeming to notice his hand being held.

Kageyama felt his expression soften. "Goodnight then, dumbass." All he got was a sleepy grunt in reply, but it was good enough for him. He savored the feeling of his skin against Hinata's for another few seconds before pulling away.

It sent butterflies up his gut to his stomach to see Hinata's fingers curl, momentarily searching for the warmth that they'd lost. It felt like he had a bad case of vertigo when it dawned upon him just where he was and what he was doing, that he could hear Hinata's snores so close as if they were in the same bed and that he was sleeping in Hinata's room with him.

Kageyama reached for Hinata's fingers again, swiping a gentle thumb across the velvety knuckles and holding his hand as a lover would.

Maybe he wasn't falling in love yet, but if there were ever such a thing as falling in like, then Kageyama was falling hard.


	6. Saturation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is extremely, extremely rushed because wanted to get a new chapter out before I head off to Europe for two weeks! I apologize for the short length, the rushing, and the possible typos, but I might not be able to update until the 26th, so see you guys later! Thank you to all the people who commented, it really means a lot and it always makes me smile, and thank you to those who left kudos! I'll miss you guys!

When Kageyama awoke the next day, the first thing he noticed was that he was still holding hands with Hinata, who was snoring loudly. They were just barely hanging on to each other by the tips of their fingers, and Kageyama snatched his hand away as if he'd been burned as he remembered all of the events that had transpired. More importantly, what he'd _realized_ last night.

He got up quietly, his eyes still stinging with the desire to go back to sleep, and he opened Hinata's door softlyand slipped into the hallway. He entered the bathroom and turned on the tap, bending over and splashing his face with cold water and drenching some of his hair in the process. He straightened  and the cold water began trickling down his back and neck, raising goosebumps on his arms. He looked into the mirror, and as he stared at his tired expression, that was when he noticed the second thing.

His eyes weren't dark gray anymore. Now, they were dark blue.

Kageyama bolted from the bathroom, not even bothering to dry his face. He went back into Hinata's room, not caring about how much noise he was making, and flung open the curtains. Hinata whined in protest as the sunlight shone directly on his face, but Kageyama was too occupied with staring at the blue of the sky to care. After his eyes began tearing up because he hadn't blinked in so long, Kageyama pulled the curtains shut again and put his head in his hands.

_This just confirms it,_ Kageyama thought to himself forlornly. _I really am falling in like with him._

Kageyama didn't know which was worse-coming to terms with that fact or having it confirmed. He wondered how Hinata would react if Kageyama told him. After a few mental scenarios, Kageyama came to the conclusion that he could probably never tell Hinata if he wanted to preserve their friendship.

The thought made him a little bit sad, but he just couldn't envision any possible outcome that would result in Hinata returning his feelings. If he didn't wake up with the ability to see blue, maybe he could've convinced himself that his feelings were just a phase. Just a placebo effect, even. But, while his reds, oranges, yellows, and greens had crept into his vision gradually, this blue had hit him full force like a bullet train. Kageyama fell into a heap on his bed, burying his face into the pillow. It was too early to deal with this.

"You're so loud."

Kageyama felt a pillow hit his back. He'd almost forgotten that he was still in Hinata's room. "Sorry."

Hinata yawned and stretched, sitting up. "Did you sleep well?" he asked while rubbing at his eyes.

"Well enough," Kageyama muttered, his words muffled by the pillow.

"Ugh, you woke me up _so_ early. It's not even ten yet!" Hinata flopped on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "What were you freaking out about?"

"Nothing," Kageyama lied through gritted teeth.

"Whatever, you weird bastard. What do you want for breakfast? We usually make pancakes, but I'm sure my mom can make whatever you want."

"Pancakes are fine."

Hinata frowned at Kageyama, though the other couldn't see it. "Why are you so grumpy? Not a morning person?"

Kageyama rolled over and took a deep breath, rubbing his hands down his face. "Sorry, I'm fine."

"Then get up. When are you going to go home?"

Kageyama stood and followed Hinata downstairs, the smell of pancakes already in the air. "Whenever, I guess. Like I said, I don't have anything to do today, so I'm free all day."

"Natsu probably wouldn't let you leave anyway."

Hinata led Kageyama to the table and sat down next to him, Hinata's mom placing a plate of steaming pancakes in front of them and smiling when he said his thanks.

"So, since you don't have anything to do today, wanna come to the mall with me and help me pick out new volleyball shoes?" Hinata asked, pouring an absurd amount of syrup onto his pancakes.

"Sure, why not." Kageyama ate his pancakes plain, which Hinata was unnerved by. "Didn't you get a new pair a month ago, though?"

"I, uh, go through them pretty quickly." Hinata laughed abashedly before beginning to shove large bites into his mouth.

"Hmm, maybe you should invest in a more expensive pair. They last longer."

Hinata scoffed. "Dude, volleyball shoes are either cheap as hell or expensive as hell. There's no middle ground."

"I'll lend you some money. Besides, I was the only one on the team who didn't give you a present." Kageyama flinched internally at how much of a jackass he must have seemed to Hinata.

"Yeah, I guess you kinda owe me, huh?"

Kageyama batted Hinata lightly on his arm. "I'm doing this out of the kindness of my heart, dumbass."

"You should say 'thank you,' Hinata. I didn't raise you to be rude," Hinata's mother interjected, looking amused.

"I'll say that when he _actually_ buys me the shoes." Hinata ate the last of his pancakes and dropped the plate off in the sink, Kageyama doing so shortly afterwards. They brushed their teeth and got dressed upstairs before beginning to head out the door. "We'll be back soon," he called to his mother before slipping his shoes on and opening the door.

"Are we taking the bus, then?"

"Yep. You can pay for yourself, right?"

"Of course."

Along the way, Kageyama couldn't help but jolt whenever the back of Hinata's hand brushed against his. He fought the urge to grab it, partly because Hinata loved excessively swinging his arms when he walked, but mostly because Hinata's hands were warm and soft and Kageyama liked how his hands were bigger than Hinata's. Even on the bus ride, when Hinata grabbed Kageyama's sleeve as the bus jerked into motion before they'd found their seats, and when Hinata and Kageyama fell into one of the seats and Hinata had _laughed_ like they were in some romantic comedy movie, Kageyama's heart never stopped running a damn marathon in his chest. He was falling a hundred miles an hour for some dumbass on his volleyball team.

Once off the bus, Kageyama found himself being pulled by an overly excited Hinata into the mall like a couple on their first date, and he was struck by the fact that loving Hinata was easy. There was no particular reason he liked him, he just did. Hinata could sit down and Kageyama would find a way to warp the motion into the most adorable thing ever. It scared Kageyama as much as it thrilled him when his vision began to pulse and the last dredges of gray threatened to pull away from his sight.

_Please, not two colors in one day,_ he groaned to himself. _That's would be way too fast. This entire thing is moving way too fast._

Hinata picked a store and began browsing along the shelves, while Kageyama sat down on a chair and tried desperately to make the pulsing go away. After a few minutes of shaking his head and squeezing his eyes shut, the blurriness went away and he realized with a relieved sigh that he couldn't identify any new colors in his surroundings.

"Hey, Kageyama, which one?" Hinata asked, holding up a pair of blue shoes and a pair of red ones.

"Uh," Kageyama said, still distracted. "Um, the blue ones."

"Wait, what?"

"Huh?"

Hinata stared at him apprehensively. "What did you just say?"

"Uh-" Kageyama cut himself off and blanched, realizing what he'd just said.

_Shit._


	7. Greyscale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! This is probably going to be a long author's note, but I wanted to put this at the beginning so that hopefully, more people will read it. Firstly, thanks for all of your kudos, bookmarks, and especially your sweet comments, it really means a lot to me. Reading them brightens up my day so much, and I promise you I've read every single comment and I appreciate all of them. I just got back from Europe, and I had a blast. I've been back for around two weeks now, and I've been working on this chapter pretty much every day since I got back, rewriting over and over and all that jazz. But I think you can tell that I'm a little bit off my game for this one, and not just because I've gotten out of touch with my previous chapters since I've been gone for so long. The thing is that I'm beginning to fall out of love with Haikyuu!!, and it pains me to say it, but I've been finding the characterizations of these two harder and harder to write, and it's almost begun to drain me to write this story. I'm not saying I'll give up on it, because I won't, but updates may or may not take longer and I'm afraid I'll start to write less-than-satisfactory chapters and I'll do all I can to prevent that. I'm doing my best, and all I can ask from you guys is for your patience and support. Hopefully, this'll all just go away as the new season of Haikyuu!! begins airing, but do rest assured that I won't be abandoning this story. Thank you for reading and understanding!

"You know, you could've just told me that you could see it," Hinata said as he and Kageyama walked back to his house, box of shoes in hand. "There was no need to come up with that whole web of lies about the labels and your, um...x-ray vision."

"I didn't know how you'd react," Kageyama muttered.

"Oh, please, I don't care," Hinata waved it off. "Don't you like the color of the sky?"

"It's very...blue." Kageyama was starting to have a nagging feeling in the back of his head, and he was sure that it wasn't a good one.

"That's not-you know what, nevermind. I'm not going to get a better answer out of you, anyway. More importantly," Hinata said as he began swinging his arms, a skip in his step, "what are you going to do when we get back?"

"Actually, I think I might just head home. My parents might start to worry." Kageyama eyed Hinata sideways, noting that he still could only see the orange of his hair. What were the odds that Hinata was wearing all purple...?

"Oh, alright. Want me to walk you to the bus stop?"

"No, it's fine. Thanks for having me, and tell your mom that her food was delicious."

"Alright, bye! See you tomorrow!"

Kageyama still couldn't shake the feeling. "Bye."

* * *

A few days later, Kageyama came to the hard conclusion that something was _definitely_ wrong. He still couldn't see purple, so there were a few holes in his visible color spectrum, but when he looked at Hinata, everything remained grey except for his hair. When he saw Daichi or Asahi or anyone else, they were usually in full color, unless they were wearing purple clothing or something of that sort. With Hinata, though, either Hinata owned only purple clothing and had purple skin and eyes, or there was something seriously wrong with their situation.

A few days later, he decided to confront Hinata about it.

"Hey, Hinata, can you see me?"

Hinata gave him an odd look over a lunchbox piled high with sushi. "Uh, duh."

"No, I mean, can you see all the colors on me and stuff?"

"No, just your eyes."

"Doesn't that...bother you? Is that normal?"

"Well, I still have red and orange to go. But now that you mention it...yeah. It's really weird." Hinata furrowed his brow. "But I remember reading somewhere that if you have an incomplete set of colors, it just means that you're not complete soulmates yet or something."

"Oh." Kageyama fell silent, rubbing a thumb over his knuckles.

"Something wrong? I thought you would've been relieved from hearing that."

"Not exactly, I've just been having some weird feelings lately."

Hinata put his chopsticks down. "Oh? Like what?"

"I'm just...down, I guess."

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I-" Kageyama interrupted himself with a sigh. "I'm just getting this bad feeling about this whole thing, like maybe we should just end it now before it goes any further."

"What are you _talking_ about?" Hinata frowned at him. "What are you saying? You want to give up our friendship for this 'bad feeling' of yours?"

"If it comes to it, I guess! I don't know!" Kageyama raised his voice slightly out of frustration. It was as if his emotions were taking over the rational part of his mind.

"Are you serious?!" Hinata all but yelled, his face getting redder by the minute. "What the hell happened to taking us to the top? What the hell happened to going to nationals together? What happened to being best friends?!"

"You can do it with someone other than me! You have lots of friends, don't you?!"

"Are you _fucking_ kidding me?! Where the hell am I going to find another genius setter like you? You do realize that you're, like, one in two billion, right?"

"So are you!"

"Then what the hell is your problem? Why would we go our separate ways if we're at our best together? We were happy together, as far as I knew, until you brought this up! Would you seriously give up our friendship for this stupid color situation?!"

People were beginning to stare, but Kageyama didn't care. The stress from the past few days was beginning to overflow, and he couldn't tell whether he was angry at himself or Hinata anymore. "Yeah, maybe I would, if it's detrimental to us!"

"How is it detrimental?! You 're just ' _having a bad feeling!'"_ Hinata yelled scathingly. "What exactly does our friendship mean to you?!"

Kageyama chose to ignore the question. "Listen, I _know_ this is distracting you! No matter how fucking hard you try to hide it, I can tell! You've been off your game for almost two weeks now!"

"That has nothing to do with this!" Hinata shrieked angrily, setting his food aside and standing up so he was looking down at Kageyama, who refused to meet his eyes. "Is that _really_ all you think this friendship is? A fucking liability?!"

"I'm doing this because I'm worried about you!" He didn't know what he was saying anymore.

"No, you're not!" It might have been Kageyama's imagination, but he thought that there might have been tears filling the other's eyes. "If you _cared_ , you wouldn't be sitting here telling me that you don't want to be friends anymore! If _this,_ " Hinata gestured wildly around him, "meant _anything_ to you, then you wouldn't be telling me this! If you were really my fucking best friend, you'd be talking this out and trying to fix it, not trying to end it! So tell me, _Kageyama,_ " and the way that he said Kageyama's name was so cold that Kageyama physically flinched, "what's the real reason you're doing this?"

Kageyama stood up too, his bag falling to the ground. "Maybe I _do_ think I'm a fucking liability to you, then! Maybe I don't want to ruin what we have, so the best way to do that is to just end it when we're at our peak!"

"That is the _dumbest_ thing I've ever heard!"

"Then tell me, what the fuck am I to _you_ , then?!"

" _Everything!"_ Hinata yelled, his breath audibly catching in his throat, and this time Kageyama was sure that the tears weren't just his imagination. "Try _everything!"_

As Hinata packed his belongings away and stomped off angrily, Kageyama stood, floored, at what had just happened. His anger was slowly giving way to reason, and there was no doubt in his mind that he deserved every single punch that Hinata inevitably wanted to give him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [tumblr](http://flexecutioner.tumblr.com/) here!


	8. Monochromatic, again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying really, really hard to get my head back in the game. Chapter is not proofread; I have way too much homework to be doing. ;-; thank you all for your support and encouraging comments; ultimately, they're what gave me the drive to pull through with this chapter. It's a bit short, but I sincerely hope it was worth the long wait. <3

It had been around a week since Kageyama and Hinata had fallen out.

It had only been a week, but it felt like years to Kageyama.

He knew he should have just gone up to Hinata the next day at the latest and apologized­­—apologized for being a dick, for apologized for fucking everything up, apologized for hurting his feelings—but his simultaneous pride and immense shame overwhelmed him every time he saw the mop of bright orange hair and he found that he just couldn’t talk to Hinata.

They played relatively well on the court, at least. Hinata responded to Kageyama’s signals and called for more and ultimately acted as if nothing had ever happened between the two of them, but it was evident that the rest of the team could tell that something was up between them. Everyone, especially Daichi and Sugawara, could tell that the cold animosity and the cold shouldering from Hinata along with the helpless stares and worried lip-biting from Kageyama was anything but normal.

That wasn’t even the worst part.

Once the weekend was over, on the first day of practice, Hinata had run up to the net to spike the ball and his leg had buckled underneath his weight. It was the same leg that Kageyama had seen him limping slightly on at school and it sent a wave of cold dread through his chest when Hinata’s kneepad had ridden up on his leg and he’d caught a glimpse of the splint underneath. Kageyama had considered asking Hinata if he was okay, but he knew that he wasn’t. It had been days since he’d spoken to Hinata, besides signaling.

Kageyama buried his head in his arms, tuning out the drone of his teacher. He needed to apologize. It was completely his fault, after all. He had nothing to blame but himself.

Once the bell had rung, he immediately sought Hinata out, trailing him until they were outside the school where Kageyama could safely confide in him without anyone else overhearing.

“Hinata,” he called out as they exited the building.

Hinata barely gave him a glace over his shoulder before speeding up slightly. “What the hell do you want?” His tone of voice gave the impression that his question was more of a statement.

Kageyama swallowed, hating the ice in the words. Hating himself for being the cause of it. “I’m sorry, okay? I don’t know what I was thinking and everything just came out—“

“­—everything just came out, huh?” Hinata laughed scathing and stopped dead in his tracks, whirling around. “You don’t really mean that. Your little spiel sounded pretty well thought out to me. In fact, after a couple days of thinking about it, I might even say that your proposal sounded reasonable.”

Kageyama froze, an awful chill racing down his back. Hinata’s words echoed in his brain, a senseless cacophony of jumbled and overlapping words. “What does that mean?”

Hinata glared at him. Usually, his glares were ineffective, bordering on more of a puppy-eye look than anything. This time, it was completely void of any kind of passion. It scared Kageyama. Hinata was full of passion about even the inanest things.

“I’m saying that maybe you’re right.”

“Stop it.” Kageyama wanted to cover his ears. “You don’t mean that.”

“That’s what I said to you, and you didn’t exactly deny it,” Hinata hissed. “Kageyama, you, of all people, don’t just say things without a reason. Things don’t just ‘come out.’ If you’re not going to tell me the reason for all of that _bullshit_ back there, then I don’t want to hear anything else except a goodbye.”

“Hinata, I swear to you that I didn’t mean it.” Kageyama didn’t know what else to do than plead. “What else do you want from me? I’m _sorry._ I didn’t mean any of that.”

“Oh, yes you did, Kageyama. Even if, by chance, things did just come out of your mouth, you don’t just fucking end a friendship over nothing. If the next thing you say doesn’t have anything to do with why you said all that shit to me, then I’m leaving.” Kageyama opened his mouth to speak, but Hinata cut him off. “I’ve waited an entire goddamn week to hear about this. That’s seven days too long, Kageyama.”

Kageyama wished he’d stop saying his name.

“Look, Hinata,” he sighed. “I really don’t know why I said it all. I wanted to talk to you about something, but I’d never mean for it to go that far. I really can’t explain it. My temper got the best of me. That’s the best thing I have next to an explanation. As for what I wanted to talk about, I wanted to ask you something about why you’ve been slipping up so often.”

“I told you,” Hinata growled quickly, nearly interrupting him, “my vision’s been fucking things up for me. I’m fine.”

“No, you aren’t. That should have worn away weeks ago. Earlier at practice I saw that splint you have on your knee. What’s it for?”

“None of your business.” Hinata turned to leave, but Kageyama gripped his arm.

“It kind of is my business,” he ground out, trying not to lose his temper. “I’m your partner. You told me I was your—“

“—That was a week ago. When I thought I meant something to you. When I thought I was more than just a ‘partner.’” Hinata narrowed his eyes and wrested his arm out of Kageyama’s grip. “Do you even care, Kageyama?”

“Of course I do! You’re my best friend!” Normally, that would have been the hardest thing for Kageyama to admit in the world, especially to Hinata. And normally, saying that to Hinata would make his eyes light up, like Kageyama was the only thing he cared about in the world.

It didn’t this time. But these weren’t normal circumstances.

“If I tell you, will you leave me alone?”

“Yes.” It hurt to say, but Kageyama was willing to stop tailing Hinata if it meant that he could learn what was going on with him.

“I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m saying.”

“Well, then what are you saying?” Kageyama asked in an annoyed voice. Hinata’s eyes flashed, and for a split second, Kageyama thought that they were going to return to normal, that all of their problems would be forgotten and they’d return to their usual friendly banter.

“I’m saying that I want you to quit being around me. I’m saying that now our relationship really is confined to the court. I’m saying that we. Aren’t. Best. Friends.” Hinata spat every word out, and each word drove a knife deeper into Kageyama’s chest. “We’re partners.”

“You know I can’t agree to that.”

“I would have said the same to you a week ago.” Hinata raised an eyebrow. Kageyama really hated how he kept bringing that up. “But now, I’ve accepted it. And in a week, or maybe even less, all of your three emotions are going to accept it too. Do you want me to tell you or not?”

“I want you to tell me, but there’s no fucking way in hell that I’ll—“

“A few weeks ago, I took Natsu ice skating. She wanted to go faster on the rink. I fell. Flat on my ass. Felt a ripping sound in my knee, and then I was being helped off the ice by a band of paramedics. After a day or so, the pain just got worse, and on top of it all my tailbone was bruised, so my parents took me to the doctor.

“The end of my tailbone had snapped off. Usually, that would be a giant cause of concern, since your spinal cord is like, right there. But the doctors said I was literally millimeters off from affecting my spine, so that’s fine for now. It’s just a bit sore, but luckily, I will not be completely paralyzed from the waist down before I hit my thirties.”

Kageyama sighed in relief. He hadn’t noticed that he’d been holding it in.

“Then they looked at my leg. Took a bunch of x-rays and stuff. It wasn’t broken, at least, but I’d torn the ligament that basically allows your leg to move. They put me on a splint, since it wasn’t a complete tear, and they said it would heal within two weeks. Being the complete idiot I was, I ignored them and went back to playing volleyball the second I could. Now the pain’s getting even worse , but I haven’t told anyone yet, so I won’t have to go back to the doctor yet. It’s looking an awful lot like I’ll have to, though. If the tear gets any worse, I’ll have to get a cast, go into physical therapy once it heals, and even then there’s still a chance that it’ll be weaker than my other leg.”

“Then what the fuck were you doing at practice?!” Kageyama demanded. “Why didn’t you rest?!”

“The tournament’s coming up, so I stayed. At this rate, though, I won’t be able to play in the tournament, so there’s no use.” Hinata looked away. “I’m probably going to resign from the team.”

“Why?!”

“Because all of that shit will take at least four months. That’s not even accounting for how weak my leg will be afterwards. The only reason I can be the spiker is because of my jumping power. Without that, I have no place on the court.”

“You don’t have to resign! Just talk to Daichi and he’ll be able to figure something out—“

“Daichi’s graduating, Kageyama.” Hinata’s voice had a bitter edge to it. “Just face the facts. I’m not coming back to the team anytime soon.”

Kageyama’s disbelief began turning into a numb emptiness. “So now you’re saying that we can’t even be partners.”

“Guess not.”

Kageyama didn’t know what to say, so Hinata adjusted his backpack strap and began walking away from him. Kageyama could do nothing but stare blankly after him, his mind telling his mouth to shout after him, but his body completely unresponsive.

Things weren’t supposed to end like this. They were supposed to reconcile and hug each other and then go back to the court with their usual bickering to practice tosses and spiking. Kageyama wasn’t supposed to stare at Hinata’s back as he walked away, exactly like last time except worse.

Kageyama recounted things in his head.

He’d lost a best friend and his partner in volleyball. The only partner and the only friend he’d ever had.

As he stared at Hinata, the sun setting behind his back, the last thing Kageyama noted emptily was that Hinata’s hair was looking awfully gray that particular day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> am i gonna have to add "angst" to the tags
> 
> [tumblr](http://flexecutioner.tumblr.com/) here!


	9. Value

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for being patient with me! <3

Kageyama had come to the simple but painful conclusion that he was losing his ability to see color.

It was like a cruel joke. He’d been so happy one moment and it had been completely torn from him the next. He’d looked online and it was basically unheard of, as far as he could tell, for two soulmates to fall out with each other to the degree that they lost their ability to see color. It was rare enough that people even found their soulmates, and of course Kageyama was the one idiot on the face of the earth who could be dumb enough to lose his.

If Kageyama was honest with himself, he really didn’t think that the argument was enough to constitute a fallout this bad. But considering the immense stress that Hinata must have been under, what with his torn ligament, the argument must have been the final straw. It was his responsibility, and his alone.

He should have cherished Hinata more. That was undeniable. The heart-wrenching way Hinata had shouted that Kageyama was his everything tore Kageyama to pieces every single night. He was well aware that he was most likely overdramatizing the situation at hand, but it was damn difficult to keep a cool head when the one person on the planet that made him feel a little less alone hated him.

The first color that had gone for him was orange, and then it was red. Thankfully, it hadn’t extended beyond that. He could still very vaguely make out hints of red and orange in the world, but they were so subtle that they might as well had just been grey. He couldn’t see any hint of orange on Hinata’s hair, though, and that was the most painful part.

Kageyama was just at a loss of what to do. The rest of the team knew about Hinata’s injury at this point, and he was forced to sit out at every practice match, which visibly frustrated him. Daichi wouldn’t hear anything from Hinata regarding his wellbeing and put him strictly on the bench and forbade him from going to the tournament. Kageyama had overheard the conversation and Hinata looked like he’d been slapped in the face. Kageyama didn’t blame him.

According to common sense, the best course of action was to just talk it through with Hinata. Hinata had been there for Kageyama when he needed him, and it was time Kageyama stepped up to the plate.

Two weeks after their last encounter, Kageyama caught up to Hinata before he could race away on his bike.

“Hey, Hinata.”

Hinata looked at Kageyama blearily, dark shadows under his eyes. Kageyama wondered where he’d gotten them from. “What do you want?”

The words weren’t hostile. Rather, Hinata just sounded tired, like he’d aged a hundred years since the last time Kageyama had talked to him.

“How are you doing?”

Hinata crossed his arms, looking as if he were about to get mad at Kageyama, but he looked too resigned to go through with it. “I’m fine. Well, as fine as you can get when you’re banned from doing the one thing in the world that you love,” he sighed.

“I can’t even imagine what it’s like.” Open compassion was foreign to Kageyama, but for Hinata he’d put all of his reservations away.

“Yeah, you really can’t. And listen…” Hinata rubbed the back of his head. The gesture was so familiar that Kageyama wanted to cry. “I’ve been thinking, and it was honestly just really immature for me to take out all of my frustration on you like that. I’m sorry I’ve been giving you the cold shoulder for so long. Really, I just want us to be friends again.” He smiled a bit. “I miss what we had before.”

Kageyama couldn’t believe that Hinata was the one apologizing. “No, not at all! I’m the one who should be sorry, the things I said were so careless!” he spluttered.

Hinata rolled his eyes and slapped him on the shoulder. “Whatever. It’s over. We’re friends again, and I won’t ignore you. What do you say to lunch over the weekend?”

“I—yeah, sure!” Kageyama thought he must be dreaming. Was it really going to be this easy to win his soulmate back?

Of course it wasn’t.

* * *

After they’d made up, Kageyama still couldn’t see the color of Hinata’s hair. It was disconcerting that Hinata now looked like every other person he passed on the street, minus the distinctive spikiness. It was almost like the world was saying that Hinata wasn’t special anymore, when clearly he was.

On Saturday morning, he pushed his worries to the back of his head. They could talk about it over lunch or something. He just wanted to focus on helping Hinata cheer up.

They met at a small pizza diner in the middle of the mall, sitting down together and starting up one of their usual conversations. It was a little bit awkward at first, but they soon found their old rhythm again. While they were waiting for their food, Kageyama brought up the elephant in the room.

“So…how’s your leg?” he asked apprehensively, afraid that Hinata might lash out.

Hinata shrugged, but Kageyama could see the flash of annoyance in his eyes. “It’s alright, I guess. It’s going to be really weak when I get the splint off, though. Which is really annoying. I’m tired of having to sit out at games.”

“Well, you shouldn’t strain yourself, or else it’ll just get—“

“I know, Kageyama,” Hinata interrupted. “Everyone’s been telling me the same thing. And it’s not even the volleyball that I’m upset about,” he said, sighing frustratedly. “I just wanted to play in the finals with the rest of our team, before Daichi and the other third-years graduate. I don’t want to spend the last game we have with them sitting on the bench. You know?”

“Yeah, I get you. But what else is there to do than just wait it out? There’s no point in hurting yourself anymore, and even if you somehow can play, I don’t think your performance would be the best anyway.”

“I guess waiting it out is the only option I have, really. I just wish I didn’t have to do so much waiting.”

“It’ll benefit you in the long run.”

“Well, on the bright side, Daichi did say that by the final tournament I _might_ actually be well enough to play for a few minutes, at the very least. He told me not to try to rush the healing process, but it’s at least a small glimmer of hope.”

“That’s great, but just keep in mind that a torn ligament is pretty serious.” Kageyama thanked the waiter as their pizzas arrived, steaming hot. “I’d say that you should just skip out on playing in the tournament, but it’s your choice. I can’t stop you.”

“Aw, you _do_ care. How sweet.” Hinata snickered as he blew on a slice.

“Of course I do.” Kageyama didn’t meet Hinata’s eyes. “You’re my best friend, after all.”

“You’re my best friend too.” Hinata didn’t seem to notice the effect the words had on Kageyama.

“So have you been getting that weird color-recession thing with your vision?” Kageyama asked carefully.

“Uh, what do you mean?”

“Have you lost the ability to see some colors?”

Hinata looked at Kageyama as if he were crazy. “Um…no?”

“That’s…weird. I wonder why it’s been happening to me.” Kageyama rubbed the back of his neck. “I’d guessed that it was just because, you know, you were so mad at me.”

Hinata shrugged. “I’ll be honest, Kageyama. As irrational as I think I might have been, looking back on it, I’m still kind of pissed. That is a bit worrying, though. Have you tried anything to bring it back?

“I don’t really know what to try.” Kageyama let his pizza grow cold on his plate, stirring the ice in his glass of water with the straw. “What can I even do in this situation by myself?”

Hinata looked at him, raising an eyebrow.  Before Kageyama could say or do anything, he had leaned over the table and pressed his warm, soft lips to Kageyama’s.

He knocked the glass of water over.

Partly because, well, Hinata was kissing him. _Kissing him._ How did that happen?!

And partly because the moment their lips met Kageyama’s world seemed to explode with color, the source of which seemed to be Hinata himself. It was like someone had shot a paintball onto everything in the room, filling it with a bright warmth that screamed of life and beauty, and for a split second Kageyama could see even Hinata in full color, something that he’d never seen before.

But after Hinata pulled away, looking at him curiously, the color slowly sank away, reabsorbed by the dreary grey. Kageyama wanted to beg Hinata to kiss him again, just to be able to see how beautiful everything really was just once more, but the lump in his throat swallowed it up.

As the last of the colors faded, Kageyama felt lonelier than he ever had before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [tumblr](http://flexecutioner.tumblr.com/) here!  
>  I also have a fanfiction only account (still being built) at: slayjax.tumblr.com


	10. NOTICE

Hi guys!!!! So as some of you may know, this story has been progressing along very slowly, but I'm doing my best. I've made a tumblr (listed in the author's notes) solely for the purpose of archiving fics somewhere and also to post updates! Most of the stuff on there will be about AC with some other general notices/life updates, etc. So if you're following this story or me in general just for the fics and you want to be kept updated with what's going on, please follow me there, as I'll be posting some pretty relevant updates in a bit! You can also follow me at my main blog to get to know more about me if you'd like, but there will be no fanfiction stuff going on there, and I'd like to make it pretty clear that I am NOT an anime blog, I only reblog content I find amusing and most of it isn't fandom ^_^ thanks guys!

This chapter was mainly so I could get your notice and will be replaced by the actual chapter 10 of the story once I have finished it. By then, this lil section will go in the author's notes.

Thanks so much for reading! I'm very sorry if you were hoping for a new update, but I'm trying as best as I can!!! Thank you for all the kind reviews, I may not respond very much but i do read every single one and they are my motivation to continue this story!! <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [tumblr](http://slayjax.tumblr.com/) for fanfics here!

**Author's Note:**

> Consider this a preview of a sort; I'd love to hear your opinions on whether or not I should continue. I'm sure this has been done a billion times before, so I'm a little wary of posting it. Thanks for reading!


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